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bookphenomena_micky 's review for:
Wildwood Dancing
by Juliet Marillier
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Headlines:
A flavour of retellings
Dancing sisters
Other folk of many types
Marillier knows how to craft an interesting world to invest the reader from the start. In this duology starter, I found myself in the Transylvanian mountains of Romania, somewhere I've never been in fiction before; so fresh. This story had the flavour of some fairytales but set in it's own unique way, one of the influences was the twelve dancing princesses (but there weren't twelve).
In no surprise to any Marillier fan, the other folk and their world collided with those of the protagonist Jena and antagonist Cezar. Cezar, (deep sigh) was vile in an exponential way as the story developed. Expect to feel shades of patriarchy, misogyny and control. There were many parts of this story with Cezar that enraged me. That said, many of the men in this story were empowering towards women.
Jena and her sisters were a colourful bunch. By the end, I really wanted a Tati story, more of what happened to her in this story and the afterwards, I'm all curious about her life afterwards. Gogu was a great character and although Hollis and I guessed much about this character, the reading of it was still entertaining.
In the other world we met a lot of different folk, dissimilar to her sevenwaters fair folk. The night people were illusively intriguing, I loved the brief pictures and connections between the sisters and Anatoli, Sten and othe dancing partners.
The romp to the end was predictable in some ways and less so in others but it didn't hamper my enjoyment. I'm looking forward to the next book (and hoping my buddy is on board for this soon) and wishing already that there were more than two books in this series.
A flavour of retellings
Dancing sisters
Other folk of many types
Marillier knows how to craft an interesting world to invest the reader from the start. In this duology starter, I found myself in the Transylvanian mountains of Romania, somewhere I've never been in fiction before; so fresh. This story had the flavour of some fairytales but set in it's own unique way, one of the influences was the twelve dancing princesses (but there weren't twelve).
In no surprise to any Marillier fan, the other folk and their world collided with those of the protagonist Jena and antagonist Cezar. Cezar, (deep sigh) was vile in an exponential way as the story developed. Expect to feel shades of patriarchy, misogyny and control. There were many parts of this story with Cezar that enraged me. That said, many of the men in this story were empowering towards women.
Jena and her sisters were a colourful bunch. By the end, I really wanted a Tati story, more of what happened to her in this story and the afterwards, I'm all curious about her life afterwards. Gogu was a great character and although Hollis and I guessed much about this character, the reading of it was still entertaining.
In the other world we met a lot of different folk, dissimilar to her sevenwaters fair folk. The night people were illusively intriguing, I loved the brief pictures and connections between the sisters and Anatoli, Sten and othe dancing partners.
The romp to the end was predictable in some ways and less so in others but it didn't hamper my enjoyment. I'm looking forward to the next book (and hoping my buddy is on board for this soon) and wishing already that there were more than two books in this series.